Question for God

(This is something I wrote for my writing seminar class. If you could spend a few minutes with God to interview Him, what would you ask Him? (For writing students, write a 800-word response; then, cut it down to 400 words. This will help you in seeing what is most important in your writing.)

“Have you ever thought of jumping of a building?” The author asks this in Stranger than Fiction. “Everyone thinks about jumping off of buildings.” I agree. Jumping off buildings or in front of cars; people wonder about these things. But, also, “What would it be like if that child playing in the sand box were mine and not hers?” And, “If I had told him I was in love with him then, would he not dislike me now?” There’s even another layer. “What if I got a million dollars?” And, “What if I never got hurt again?”

So, God, why do we wonder? We could have lived without wondering. You could have handed us a life and we would accept it and nothing else. Our events would run smoothly before us like a movie, each frame on time, and that would be all we’d ever encounter. We don’t have to ask “what if.” If we do, will anything change? But why would You create a world that had to be changed?

So much is added to our lives by wondering. For instance, why do we read? We read because we wonder. Why do we write? Because we wonder. Reading and writing consumes my time, my energy, my life. Sometimes it’s hard, but I fight to write and I need to read. Does that mean that I wonder all the time? Is that all I ever do? Could it be that that I wonder more than other people, if so, does that mean I wonder too much?

Is what I wonder about right in front of me? Is wondering a way of finding what’s already in front of you? If I wonder, will I find something I could not have otherwise? But what could be in jumping off a building or having a child? A story?

It’s not a game, is it? A game of tag we play with You in our daydreams? Are they distractions in from what is a little harder? No one could deny it’s fun; no writer ever would, that’s for sure.
Maybe wondering is writing. It is a talent, a gift. With it would come the gift of imagination. All writers are wonderers. Reading is seeing the wonderings of others; our way of knowing their thoughts; the realistic way to be a mind-reader. If we collected everybody’s wonderings, would we have a world? No. But, we would have a library.